Let's get ready to roll ...

It's almost spring knobbers and this month's challenge has nothing to do with anything or spring!

I was going to offer up a suggestion to do all three courses (appetizer, main, dessert), but I leave it to you to select which course you'd like to prepare (or multiple courses to prepare).

This month's theme is, 'things that are rolled'. Perhaps some eggrolls, perhaps manicotti, or perhaps a canoli. Get crazy and wrap a hotdog inside of a pancake that's rolled in a deep dish pizza and then battered in cornmeal and deepfried, mmm mmm tasty.

Things that are rolled. Deadline is April 5th. Party on folks.

Organic and what not

This is my first lasagna. I love the dish, but it makes so much and is usually so fattening which I think is why I've avoided it. I really did not follow a recipe. I had a few things at home, picked up a few more things at a health food store (while forgetting even more) and called it a day.

Lately I've been leaning towards going vegetarian (Just cause. That's a whole different post) so I made my lasagna sans meat.

It turned out....well....not so great looking, but the taste made up for it. It looks like a rainbow of a mess really. I ended up dropping my noodles so they were all broken. nice. oh, gluten free noodles by the way. Normally I wouldn't go to that extreme, but we were in the health food store at the time and it's all they had....

My list of items:

ricotta cheese

2 zucchini

parmesan cheese

cheddar cheese

orange pepper

onion

noodles

petite diced tomatoes

garlic

I started out by mixing the ricotta in the food processor with one of the zukes, garlic, and salt. it made a nice light green color. Oh, and I added rosemary to that as well. Second, I sauteed the remainder of my vegs just until a bit soft. The diced tomatoes were pureed with garlic, salt, and tomato paste. I layered the dish starting with the noodles, then the ricotta, vegs, tomato sauce, cheese, and repeat. Honestly I do think I messed up on the order of my layers during the middle of the production.

It cooked for one hour and voila! It looks like more of a veg casserole in the pics, but the effort was there! I topped with parmesan (my fave cheese ever), and had some fresh rye bread from the bakery on the side. Mattie was in for seconds and said he didn't miss the meat at all. I can dig that!

I can honestly say that I did enjoy this meal and I don't feel like I just ate a brick. Next time I hope that I don't break my noodles into little pieces before they reach the pan though. Matt couldn't say why, but he felt that he liked the noodles that you have to cook before assembly better than the oven ready guys. Noted.

I'm off to have hot chocolate with baileys, but until then fellow doorknobs, keep those buns and ovens hot!

individual moussaka

greek food is hit or miss for me. i am particularly partial to moussaka because it reminds me of lasagna. i kept it real simple, made it in individual ramekins and topped with a bechamele sauce.



Moussaka

thinly slice up an eggplant (i used a chinese eggplant)
1/2 stick of butter
1/4 cup of flour
1/2 cup of milk (i used buttermilk because that's what i had)
tomato/spaghettie sauce (i had some leftover with meat)



for the bechamele sauce, i melted the butter in a sauce pan, added the flour and stirred till incorporated. add the milk (or buttermilk) and stir till thickened. salt and pepper to taste.

assemble in layers, first with the eggplant, the tomato sauce and then another layer of eggplant. top it all off with the bechamele sauce. if i had had bread crumbs available, i would've added that to the top but i didn't, so i sprinkled some oats. bake in preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes.



watch that growing ass and stay warm!

A twist on the standard lasagna ...

I'm a big fan of the brasserie's in the Boston area, and the mac'n'cheese that's served at the retaurants. Most either are ham or lobster mac'n'cheese so for this month's challenge, it's lobster mac'n'cheese lasagna!

1 lobster, about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 lb in size
8 oz Ricotta cheese
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup Sharp cheddar cheese (shredded)
1/3 cup Mozzarella cheese (shredded)
1/3 cup Gruyere cheese (shredded)
Lasagna noodles
1/2 cup Milk
1 tbsp garlic powder
pepper
1 large egg

Since I was only making a small amount, I decided to make it in a loaf pan instead of a standard lasagna pan, adjust amounts accordingly as needed for more servings.

Steam lobster, remove all meat from shell and cut into very small pieces, set aside.

In a bowl, combine well ricotta, egg, parmesan cheese, garlic powder and milk. In a second bowl combine the mozzarella, gruyere and cheddar. Prepare your lasagna starting with a thin layer of the ricotta, topped with lasagna pasta, some lobster and then finish off with a layer of the mixed cheese. Repeat. Cover and place into a 375 oven for 45 mins. Uncover and bake for another 10-15 until the top of the lasagna is perfectly brown.